


Unexpected

by miss_aligned



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Mass Effect 1, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 10:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7798459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_aligned/pseuds/miss_aligned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard is upset, but discovers a new ability that she'd never realized she'd picked up along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected

Maybe she could reason with them.

Perhaps she could force them to cooperate.

What if there was another way to handle this?

Had she really considered everything?

Shepard ran her fingers through her hair as she paced the quiet room, staring periodically with disdain at the empty spaces where the Council’s crackling visages appeared from time to time when they needed something out of her. She’d always been willing to help out humanity and strive for greatness, but this entire Spectre thing seemed more of a headache than it was worth with each passing day.

They were so close to finding Saren. So close to stopping him. It didn’t make any sense as to why they’d let her have free range to galavant across the galaxy as she wished up until now and suddenly, just on the cusp of achieving her goal and saving countless lives, they’d put a hard stop to it. She was basically forbidden to leave the Citadel, because her doing so would apparently cause a war.

It was the most frustrating, ridiculous thing she’d ever heard in her life. War was coming whether they liked it or not. There was a damn good chance that they’d all be dead before they’d come to realize who the real enemy really was. They’d been blissfully oblivious to the problems up until now, it seemed, and such denial couldn’t continue.

The more Shepard thought about it, the more she could feel rage building in her gut. Her blood was beginning to boil. She felt something like a caged animal on her own ship, but she wasn’t about to step foot on the Citadel just yet, just in case her anger got the best of her and something unfortunate like punching Udina in the face was unexpectedly caught on camera. How scandalous and satisfying that would be…

Shepard sighed heavily and stormed out of the comm room, though she hadn’t really set any sort of destination in her mind. She just felt the urge to move. Stepping out into the CIC, she realized how quiet it really was. Many of the crew had disembarked and were probably visiting Citadel hot spots. She couldn’t blame them, really, as there was nothing that could be done on the vessel since it was grounded, but the unexpected lack of voices and gentle hum of engines did certainly punctuate severity of the situation.

“Hey, there you are,” Kaidan said, offering her that little half-smile that made her stomach do flips. “I knew you hadn’t left yet.”

“I was sure you’d gone off to… convince… the Council to release the Normandy,” Liara commented as the pair of them approached.

Shepard skirted around them and stepped up to the map, despite it being frustratingly dark at the moment. She should have been plotting a course to Ilos, not standing here, staring into a void with nothing to do. Her hands wrapped around the railing and twisted angrily, turning her knuckles white with the pressure.

“Everything okay?” Kaidan asked, concern heavy in his tone. “I mean, I know it’s not, but is there something we can do to help?”

She couldn’t seem to find the words to answer him. The rage and annoyance at the situation seemed to have stolen all the rational thought from her mind. Once she glanced over at her lieutenant, his expression of genuine caring caught her off guard. She was undeserving and that only caused her cheeks to redden and her frustration to build.

“If you need time alone to think, we could--” Liara began.

“I can’t believe they’d do this,” Shepard interrupted, having suddenly been pushed over the edge and begun spewing her irritation in all directions. “We’ve come so far and uncovered so much. They’re just going to sweep it under the rug now? When we’re so close? If we don’t stop him, then people are going to die. The Council doesn’t even care! They’d rather sit back and let it happen, pretending that there’s not a larger threat out there. I _know_ it’s there. Saren is just the beginning. They’re fucking ignoring what’s right in front of their stupid faces!”

A long silence passed before Shepard dared to look at either of her companions. When she finally did, however, she was surprised at how utterly dumbfounded they both looked. While it wasn’t exactly shocking for her to swear, she didn’t think that it had been so offensive that they’d actually be flabbergasted. She internally scolded herself for reacting in such a juvenile manner regardless.

“I’m sorry. I’m just--”

“What the hell was that?” Kaidan asked, his jaw nearly hanging slack in the aftermath of her outburst.

“I didn’t meant to--”

“Shepard,” Liara snapped. It wasn’t anger in her tone, but something more akin to fascination. Awe painted her features as she stared, wide-eyed, at the commander. “We didn’t understand a word of that.”

“What?”

“Was that a different language?” Kaidan asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Shepard,” the asari called again, this time turning her attention partially to her omni-tool. “I think you were just speaking the prothean language. Fluently.”

“What? No. I don’t even know their language. How could I speak it? No one’s spoken it for fifty-thousand years, right?” Now Shepard was confused and awestruck. Since when had she picked up a dead form of communication? And did humans even have the anatomy to pull off such a feat?

“Commander,” Kaidan said, his soothing tone working its way into her addled nerves. “This probably has something to do with the prothean beacons or the Cipher or something. Maybe you should get some rest.”

“Yes,” Liara verified. “I’d been wondering if you’d picked up more of the prothean communication than you’d realized. It’s a marvel that anyone could handle all of that information.”

“Oh,” came Shepard’s sheepish reply. She didn’t really know what to say. Apparently she had even less control over her mouth than she’d initially realized.

“If you ever find the time or patience for it,” Liara continued, her bright blue eyes sparkling with anticipation. “I’d love to sit down with you and study your newfound knowledge of prothean culture, technology, and communication. I suspect that there’s more, and it would revolutionize society as we know it.”

Somehow, instinctively, Shepard glanced at Kaidan as the offer of one-on-one, in-depth study was made. She saw in his face, for only the briefest of moments, the hint of something else coloring his features before he immediately covered it over with a more neutral expression. It had been so sudden that she had trouble affixing a label to it. Discomfort? Anxiety? Jealousy? Something about it made heat rise in her cheeks.

Liara seemed to realize that there was something off, too. As her gaze drifted between the two silent humans for a moment, she resigned herself to offering instead a diminutive, “or not.”

Shepard needed to think. She needed to get her heart on track with her brain, focusing on the bigger problem at hand and not what, exactly, her lieutenant might be thinking about her. Fascinating though that might have been, it was inappropriate and superfluous right now. She needed to find an excuse to get away, no matter how silly or unnecessary.

“I’ve… got to go get something out of my locker,” she said as she desperately tried to ignore the odd fluttery feeling in her stomach. Perhaps once she was there, she could figure out a way to banish thoughts of her subordinate from her mind and figure out a solution at last. They had to break free and get to Ilos.


End file.
